


Grieving Scales

by spotty_lion



Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [14]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 20:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21434035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotty_lion/pseuds/spotty_lion
Summary: No one was supposed to be awake at a time like that.
Relationships: Aymeric de Borel/Warrior of Light, Aymeric de Borel/Warrior of Light/Estinien Wyrmblood, Warrior of Light/Estinien Wyrmblood
Series: Final Fantasy Shenanigans [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1135331
Kudos: 13





	Grieving Scales

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZDusk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZDusk/gifts).

It was the middle of the night, when the moon was high and the stars were dancing, when the air was crisp and clear, with just an aftertaste of mist. The foxes and the crickets howled and chirped outside the window, while the deer and the yetis slept amongst the snow-tipped trees.

No one was supposed to be awake at a time like that.

But Zelda had a nasty habit of not following rules.

She had woken up from pleasant dreams of picnics and festivals with a dry taste in her mouth, one that made the tongue whimper for need of liquid. She looked to her right, where Aymeric was snuggled into the bed, the outside world not causing a single bother to him. Zelda smiled as she saw how the creases of worry in his forehead had smoothed out, how peaceful and calm he looked, with the covers drawn up to his chin, his hair tousled like the waves of the ocean. She leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead, causing him to stir a little but soon relax back into his dreams.

And then suddenly she felt the chill of the emptiness to her left. She looked down, expecting to see Estinien with his long white hair sprawled around him like a tribesman’s headdress. 

But he wasn’t there.

Despite the trust that she had in Estinien, worry still twisted her gut. She liked to know where the people she loved were located. Perhaps it was just her need to be prepared for everything, or perhaps it was to do with the fact that she had lost so many friends by not being the right place at the right time.

So she got up out of bed, hunting out not only a glass of water now but also her other boyfriend. Her travels took her down to the kitchen, where the cold water tap gave her a drink to banish the ache in her mouth. With the glass still in her hand, she looked around the kitchen, seeing if anything could point her in the direction of where her missing boyfriend had gotten to.

It was quiet in the house. Peaceful. A blue hue lay over it from the shadows cast in the moonlight, edges of furniture bathed in pearly light. Outside, the stars continued to sing and breathe, while the animals with night written in their fur joined their chorus in various harmonies. All cold colours in the palette of a painter. Aside from a small shimmer of warm orange that fell through the door of the living room.

At least she had found her boyfriend, and her iron ball of concern could be deflated.

She turned back to the sink and got a second glass of water, thinking that Estinien may want something to wet his throat. Entering the living room, her heart clenched at seeing her tall, strong, graceful lover hunched in front of the fire. Framed by the light of the flames, Estinien’s thin frame was given an outline made of fireflies and sunlight, while the centre of his hunched form was charcoal and soot.

His form was a long way from the confident, beautiful dragoon that she knew. Now he seemed nothing more than a frightened boy.

Zelda’s heart clenched. No one should have to be so scared.

What was worse still was that Estinien was scared of them, of her and Aymeric, of their thoughts and their feelings, how they saw him. He was scared of the way that their eyes would look at his body, at the night-dark scales that sank into his skin on his shoulders and elbows, of the way that his eyes would darken and bloom with the blood of the dead wyrm that had inhabited his body, of the way that his teeth would sharpen, of the way that curved horns would split his skin and grow from his head like poison ivy. He was scared of the way that they would look at him and think he was a monster.

Just this morning they had all three of them sat down together and spoken about this. Estinien had been much the same as he was now - small, unwanting to be seen. They had told their boyfriend that the aftermath of Nidhogg’s rage on his body did not worry them, that he was still their boyfriend and that they would never stop loving him.

But it seemed their words had not hit their mark.

She went to him, as she would anyone in the hour of need. She was careful, cautious, as if in fear of upsetting him further. She put a hand on his shoulder when she reached him, putting the glass of water into Estinien’s line of sight. He did not startle; the Azure Dragoon would have picked up on her stirring even from upstairs. He took the glass in his hand and took a small sip.

They did not share audible words as Zelda sat down next to him, close enough to be of comfort, but far away enough to respect the walls that he had raised around him. The subtle shift away from her did not go amiss. It hurt her heart to see him like this, so scared to even look at her.

There were moments that stretched into a thousand, ones that ached and clawed and tore. They hurt so very much. They bore all the unhappy flames of Estinien’s sadness and his torment. Nidhogg had burned his impression upon, not only the elezen’s body, but all of his memories and his dreams too. Every time his eyes shut, the scaled beast was there, teeth glaring with the blood of all of those that had perished before him. Every time his mind wandered too far from the here and now, the wyrm’s wings would flare up and open, crashing through the air like shields coming down onto the back of a gladiator. Nidhogg was there, ever-present, and he would likely never leave.

Zelda only wished that she could understand what was going through her boyfriend’s mind. His face betrayed nothing; only that stony, cold look that he resorted to when he was lost to thoughts that he wanted no one knowing.

Alas, while she would be plagued with the memories of the battle against the dread wyrm and the claws in her back, it would never compare to having the beast wriggle his way through the cracks into a vulnerable mind. She wished that she could help, but only if Estinien would let her, for she could do very little if he did not want her help.

The silence continued and stretched into the night. The pair of lovers leaned into each other, Estinien finally relaxing into his girlfriend, sitting together in front of the fire, as the flames simmered and grew blue with ash. 

‘Darling,’ Zelda said, after the silence threatened to drown them, ‘you are just as beautiful now as the first day I saw you. And nothing will change that.’

Estinien said nothing, for his words were lost in the canyon of his shock. There was a cherry blossom bloom around his small smile that stretched to the tips of his ears. He leaned his face down and nuzzled it into the point between Zelda’s neck and shoulder.

She grinned as she heard a tiny, ‘Thank you.’


End file.
